The victory at the Ember Hollow lingered like a thin film over Kaelin’s skin, bittersweet and fragile. As the third seal fell, she knew that every step forward drew them closer to an abyss few had ever dared approach. There was no room for celebration, not when the weight of what still lay ahead pressed down on her like an invisible mountain.
The Hollow Legion broke camp the next morning beneath a blood-orange sky. Even the sunrise seemed to bleed with warning. The trees of the Ember Hollow had grown unnervingly still overnight, as though something deeper had noticed their defiance.
Kaelin mounted her mare, her eyes scanning the horizon. The embers of her last battle still burned behind her ribs, but it was not exhaustion that kept her chest tight—it was what came next.
Theron rode up b
